In the last few days, Li Po had finally learned to behave. He stayed in his dorm obediently, going nowhere, enduring the heat of his rut alone.

Whenever the heat surged at the back of his neck, he would swiftly grab an inhibitor from his bedside table and inject it precisely into his vein. Throughout the process, his face remained expressionless, without a hint of resistance, completely different from how he was back in the arsenal.

Yes, Li Po thought coldly. That wasn’t him. As for who it was, he didn’t know either.

After injecting the inhibitor, the heat at the back of his neck subsided considerably. He lay on the bed and picked up his communicator, sending a message to Bian Lu.

The reply came quickly: [Got it, I’ll arrange it.]

Seeing the message, Li Po suddenly felt inexplicably better, a slight smile appearing at the corners of his lips. Happily, he rolled on the bed.

–

Meanwhile, all the operatives received a notice on their communicators from the higher-ups in S District.

“Damn, so the rumors were true… Does that mean whenever we go on missions from now on, we could turn into monsters?”

“Don’t overthink it,” another Alpha cut in, annoyed. “They’ve already said the source of contamination has been destroyed, plus White Tower is developing a special drug for the mutated species. What are you so scared of?”

“It’s just that they might not develop it in time. And what if we’re unlucky and get… before they do?”

“Ptooey! Ptooey!” The Alpha spat on the ground, quickly cutting him off. “Speak for yourself, don’t drag me into it. I’m not as unlucky as you.”

“Man, you’re so…”

“Alright, alright, stop arguing. You’re giving me a headache,” another Alpha squeezed in from behind, patting them on the shoulder. “Hey, you guys want to hear some gossip? It’s explosive!”

“Not interested.”

“Couldn’t care less.”

“Sigh,” the Alpha sighed dramatically, “You guys really have no taste, not even interested in gossip about the commanding officer.” After saying this, he removed his hand from their shoulders and pretended to leave.

“Wait, whose gossip?” The Alpha on the left quickly grabbed his hand.

“The commanding officer’s?” The Alpha on the right widened his eyes in shock, gripping his sleeve tightly.

“Knew you’d react like this.” The Alpha smiled knowingly, leaning in closer to whisper, “I bumped into the officer at the Black Tower a few days ago, just as he returned from a mission. Guess what?”

The other Alphas exchanged glances and shook their heads.

“He was covered in Omega pheromones!”

The short sentence was like a bomb going off in their ears, leaving the Alphas stunned, their faces full of shock as if they had been scared stiff.

After a few seconds, the Alpha on the right recovered from the shock, frowning with doubt in his eyes: “Are you sure? You’re not just messing with us, right? The commanding officer is so cold. How could he have come into contact with an Omega?”

The Alpha on the left also started to sense something was off: “Yeah, and even if he did hook up with an Omega, why would he come back smelling like that? He made those rules himself. There’s no way he’d break them.”

“Exactly, this is pointless. Let’s go.” The Alpha on the right, feeling annoyed at being tricked, ruffled his messy hair and turned to leave.

The Alpha on the left didn’t look too happy either. He threw out a casual, “Next time, make up something better,” and left as well.

Only the Alpha in the middle stood there, bewildered.

What? Why didn’t anyone believe him? He really did smell Omega pheromones on the officer! It was so strong, practically covering his whole body. How could he have been mistaken?

Standing there, the poor Alpha felt utterly defeated inside.

–

After enduring his rut, Li Po went to White Tower to work as Bian Lu’s assistant.

Although the title was “assistant,” there really wasn’t much work for him. Most of the time, Li Po sat idly in a small room next to the consultation office, doing nothing at all.

If it were someone else, they would’ve been thrilled and grateful for such an easy job, but Li Po wasn’t just anyone. He felt like mushrooms were starting to grow on his head from all the boredom.

Afraid that sitting any longer would make his butt go moldy, Li Po got up from the small couch, deciding to go for a walk. After all, Bian Lu had only told him not to go to other floors, so it should be fine to wander around the third floor.

The third floor of White Tower had the strongest smell of disinfectant and blood. Holding his breath, Li Po walked alone through the hallway, brushing past injured Alphas without a change in his expression.

Suddenly, someone familiar blocked his path.

It was Di Kai.

Di Kai’s right arm was wrapped in bandages, and he was glaring at him menacingly. He scanned the Omega up and down, noticing there were no wounds on him. His face, covered in muscle, twisted into a displeased expression: “What are you doing here?”

Li Po raised an eyebrow at his words: “Why can’t I be here?”

Di Kai’s face darkened even more: “You’re not hurt. What’s the point of being here?”

Li Po didn’t bother arguing with him: “Bian Lu called me here. If you have questions, take it up with him.” With that, he didn’t spare Di Kai another glance and walked past him.

Di Kai stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. Something felt off. This Omega seemed different from the last time they met. He seemed… more arrogant.

Tsk, how unlucky.

Li Po also felt it was unlucky. He quickened his pace, stopping in front of a room with a sign that read “Medical Equipment Room.”

That’s right, he wanted to find the device that had been used to measure his spiritual power back then and secretly test himself again.

As for whether he knew how to operate it… He’d figure that out once he found it.

He pushed open the door to the equipment room and glanced inside, feeling a bit disappointed. There weren’t many medical devices here. The large room was mostly empty, with just a few scattered machines in the corners, all covered in a layer of dust, clearly out of commission for some time.

Well, it made sense. If these were valuable medical devices, there’s no way Li Po would have been able to enter so easily. There were no star keys, no ID systems—just a room full of scrap equipment. Li Po had thought there might be something good in here, but clearly not.

Realizing this, Li Po sighed lightly. Still, he didn’t give up and walked over to the corner, checking each piece of equipment.

Suddenly, a silver-gray machine caught his eye.

It was lying less than three meters from his feet. Li Po stared at it for a while, feeling like it looked familiar.

Wait, wasn’t this the machine used to test his spiritual power? What was it doing here?

The machine was covered in a thin layer of dust, which disappeared with a swipe of his finger. Compared to the thick dust on the other machines, this one was practically clean. Li Po stared at it thoughtfully, a reasonable guess forming in his mind.

Could it be that the machine had worn down too much, causing an error when measuring his spiritual power?

But what if it just looked like the one that had been used to test him?

Once again, Li Po found himself in a dilemma. He curled his fingers slightly, about to reach out and test the machine when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone standing at the door of the equipment room.

“!!!”

Crap, he almost jumped out of his skin.

Bian Lu had been looking for Li Po for a while and hadn’t expected to find him here.

“What are you doing?”

Li Po quickly pulled his hand back, hiding it behind him as his mind raced: “Doctor Bian, I was bored, so I was just wandering around.”

“What’s there to wander around for?” Bian Lu was baffled by the younger generation’s thoughts.

Li Po smiled lightly at his words: “I’ve never seen this kind of equipment before. I was curious.”

Bian Lu understood then, nodding in agreement. “These are indeed rare to see. It’s normal to be curious. But most of these are either nearly scrapped or already scrapped equipment, so they’re not of much use. If you’re really interested, I can show you around more later.”

“Thank you, Doctor Bian.” Li Po nodded obediently. “By the way, was there something you needed?”

“Oh, right!” Bian Lu smacked his forehead. “There’s a patient I need you to meet.”

A patient?

Li Po was puzzled. What kind of patient needed him?

Consultation room.

Holding a measurement device, Li Po awkwardly curled his fingers.

Can someone tell him why the patient Bian Lu mentioned was Jiang Yu???

If he had known it was him, he wouldn’t have even thought about helping. He would’ve run out of here as fast as he could.

But now…

Li Po awkwardly lowered his gaze, softly murmuring, “Sir.”

Jiang Yu glanced at him coldly, not saying a word.

Off to the side, Bian Lu smiled warmly, his words gentle and soothing: “Li Po, I’ll be busy in a bit. Can you help me measure his body stats?”

“…” How could Li Po refuse? He forced a smile. “Sure.”

“That’s more like it.” Bian Lu seemed quite pleased. As he left, he patted Jiang Yu on the shoulder. “No objections, right?”

Jiang Yu ignored him, simply brushing off the hand on his shoulder with a blank expression.

Bian Lu didn’t seem to mind. As he closed the door, he even had the time to wave goodbye to Li Po: “See you.”

Bang!

The door to the consultation room gently closed, and for a moment, only Li Po and Jiang Yu were left in the room.

Feeling a bit awkward, Li Po scratched his face. He picked up the threshold detector from the instrument table and slowly walked over to Jiang Yu, speaking in a low voice: “Sir, please extend your hand.”

Bian Lu had taught him that all he needed to do was wrap the strap on the side of the device around the patient’s wrist and then start the machine. It would measure the patient’s spiritual power fluctuation threshold. So, Li Po naturally assumed it was his job to put the strap on, and that the patient didn’t need to do anything except sit still.

However, Jiang Yu misunderstood. He thought Li Po was handing him the device, so he silently extended his hand.

The next second, a ripple of surprise appeared on Jiang Yu’s otherwise calm face.

Li Po placed the device on the table in front of him, then carefully cradled Jiang Yu’s hand in his own. His warm fingertips gently held Jiang Yu’s wrist as he bent down, preparing to fasten the strap.

“I can do it myself.”

After a moment of hesitation, Jiang Yu spoke up.

“No need,” Li Po, thinking Jiang Yu was just trying to avoid bothering him, shook his head kindly. “It’s fine, sir. It’s not troublesome at all.”

With that, Li Po lowered his eyes again, focusing earnestly as he picked up the strap from the table and started to fasten it around Jiang Yu’s wrist.

Then, suddenly, he froze.

——Could that scar be from when he bit him?